


Collecting Memories

by ADL



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:13:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25102216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ADL/pseuds/ADL
Summary: Nick begins his collection of ephemera. He reflects about why he’s drawn to certain objects and wonders if that’s normal.
Relationships: Ellie Bishop & Nick Torres, Ellie Bishop/Nick Torres, Jethro Gibbs & Nick Torres
Comments: 3
Kudos: 42





	Collecting Memories

**Author's Note:**

> Post season 17 Episode 16. Contains Season 16 spoilers

Nick dug through his bedroom trash can to find the small band of plastic he’d thrown away from his recent hospital stay. He couldn’t get over the case: going through Art’s stuff this afternoon reminded him that some things are meant to be kept. He wasn’t quite sure yet which emotion led him to dig through the bedroom bin that he was pretty sure he’d never emptied but it may have been love?

He wanted to save the feeling that he’d done the right thing for Ellie. He’d push her out of the way of any car or bullet or crazy arms dealer, and the bracelet reminded him that he was strong enough to do that and survive to do it again. He could weather any injury knowing he’d done it to protect Ellie. He was strong for her—he was pretty sure that was what pulled him through, the promise that she’d be around. Ziva read him like a book and he was sure others had too...especially after literally jumping in front of a car for her. Maybe his desire was to remember that feeling of pure love and adrenaline.

Nick also thought about the weird resolution for the case. Clearly, Nick was targeted but Zolov’s murder loomed. From what he could gather, the team felt like Gibbs had avenged his injuries. After going without a father for his whole life, just being under Gibbs’s direction felt like he’d gained a weird, but good, dad. That day, the day he woke up, was the first day he truly felt that Gibbs felt it back. Perhaps the bracelet was about his “daddy issues?” Men can have those, yeah? He didn’t care how strange he felt about it all—Art kept every little thing, Nick could keep the things that made him feel good.

Finally, he pulled the snapped plastic bracelet from the can. He put it on his dresser next to his wallet and took note to find a box for his ephemera. 

He went into the next room to get his dinner ready and start turning in for the night. 

His phone buzzed. “Message from Ellie Bishop” lit up the screen.

EB: “I don’t think I can throw anything away every again”

Nick smiled as he typed: “Yeah, same. I was just digging through my trash because Art inspired me”

EB: “I’m glad he got so much from it. I don’t know if I need any of this stuff but I don’t know if I can get rid of it”

EB: “lol what did you get from the trash??”

NT: “Don’t judge me”

NT: “My Hospital bracelet”

EB: “You want to remember being hurt and in the hospital”

EB: “ I never want to remember that week.”

EB: “We didn’t know if you were going to make it. The nurses were extremely unhelpful. They wouldn’t tell me anything.”

EB: “Tim didn’t trust me not murder someone”

Nick was typing and untyping his reply but she was quicker with each message.

EB: “And we don’t know if we’ll ever know who killed Xavier.”

EB: “He was the worst. The man owned a freaking tiger. But that didn’t kill him and we won’t ever really know who did”

Nick decided to just reply to the first message. Though seeing her go off—even in text—was one of his favorite things.

NT: “I don’t want to remember being in the hospital. I want to remember how I felt when I woke up in the hospital”

EB: “Sore?”

NT: “Loved.”


End file.
